“Are you going to make me bark?” In other words… is Clinical Hypnosis dangerous?

Hypnosis got the reputation of brainwashing and mind control. Sometimes it is associated with sin.

Historically speaking, in the 1780’s thousands of people went to see Anton Mesmer, who was later labeled by the establishment as a fraud and a charlatan.

Mesmer left us with:

• The concept of mesmerizing (derived from his name)
• The fear that hypnotism is fake.

So… can you make me bark or can’t you?

Since I assume you do not want to bark, the answer is NO.

Clinical Hypnosis is from the same family of guided imagery, mindfulness, and meditation. When we are being hypnotized:

• We are aware of what is going on
• We can hear everything around the room (and yet we choose to listen within)
• We can open our eyes if we want to (and yet it feels better to close them and look inward.)
• We can snap out of it in a moment
• We can remember it later
• We are in total control over our mind and body.

In fact, the more we allow ourselves to relax – the deeper we can get into trance state.

Being in trance state means having focus awareness.

The deeper we are in trance state – the more we can explore what we want to explore.

By bypassing the conscious mind, we speak directly to the unconscious mind, which contains our automatic behaviors. Those are estimated to be 85% of our behaviors.

In other words, speaking directly to the unconscious mind allows us to heighten desired suggestions and gain more control over our emotions, mind, and body.

Therefore, in a weird way, hypnotizing is actually:

• De-hypnotizing (from our automatic behaviors).
• And self-hypnotizing (since we are in total control).

So… if you do not want to bark- what do you want?

Clinical Hypnosis can help with stress and anxiety relief, insomnia, weight loss, pain, self-esteem, and much more.

I cannot make you do anything. Your brain made sure YOU CAN!

Article by Hadas Ron-Zarki, MA, LAC